Hobby Horse Blog Hop Week 3

Last week was very busy and I'm late to the hop again.  Work was stressful and kept me very busy (as usual).  Then I spent Friday and Saturday at the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo.  Had a great time. Heard Temple Grandin speak.  Watched some good horse training demos.  Ate too much.  Bought the cutest denim jacket embellished with a little western bling.  Great weekend.  I'm tired.   But I'm hoppin' onto the hop. Click the hobby horse to view week 3 rules.

1. You are the lucky winner of the "Extreme Barn Makeover"! Lucky you! What things are top on your list to be remade, changed or upgraded? (Sorry, this makeover does not entirely replace barns and/or add indoor arenas!)
   
   I would love to add a finished, climate-controlled rider's lounge to my barn.  It would have a sink, microwave, refrigerator, television, and comfortable furniture.  I'd practically live in the barn.
    
   
2. Why do you treasure a particular piece of tack or equipment?
     

   

   Source: Amazon

   I keep a Weighmax digital postal shipping scale in my barn and use it every day to take the guesswork out of feeding time.  The weight and density of hay bales varies so much, that I cannot accurately judge the weight of a flake of hay just by holding it.  So I weigh my hay at every feeding. (Easy with just 2 horses to feed.)
   
   I put a bucket on the scale, turn the scale on to zero out the weight of the bucket, then place the flakes on the bucket.  This particular scale holds up to 150 pounds so I can weigh an entire bale if I'm curious about the weight of bales coming from a particular grower.
    
   
   
   
   
3. What is the best day of the week for you?
   
   Saturday for sure!  I love sleeping-in until 6:00am and not having to rush through morning barn chores.  Any other day that I can take as a vacation day from work to play with the horses is a good day too.  As the saying goes, "A bad day fishing is better than a good day at the office."  Applies to equine related recreation too.

Shades of the Morning

When I stepped outside to feed the horses Friday morning, I was stopped in my tracks by the beautiful color of the sky.  I grabbed my camera so I could capture the sight before it disappeared; the light and colors change so quickly as the sun rises.

The first shades of morning.

Shades of pink emerge.

Misty: "Quit lookin' at the sky.  Can't you see I'm starvin' here?!"

 

My favorite shades of gray.

 (And you can see that Misty is far from starvin'.)

SaraJane LOVES her Progressive Diet Balancer pellets. After scarfing down her pellets in her stall next door, she visits Misty's stall to Hoover-up the few pellets Misty always leaves behind in her grain bin.

SaraJane: "As long as I'm here, I might as well help myself to Misty's hay too."

The girls get some loose hay in their troughs and a larger portion in their individual Porta-Grazers, to slow them down a bit. They go back and forth between the stalls, nibbling from both slow feeders and troughs.

Barn chores done; horses fed; manure scooped.

Shades of gold are joining the pinks.

Shades of gold chasing shades of pink.

The gold has consumed the pink.

It's time for me to go inside and get ready for work.

What a great way to start the day.

Misty's Monday Muse: Dining Etiquette

When I first came to live in the land of Once Upon, I had very bad mealtime manners. As my picture shows, I was impatient and would grab at my hay as it was being served through my feed door.

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I was even more ill mannered than the gluttonous pony!

I've been taking etiquette lessons that teach me how to be a lady at feeding time. I've learned to turn away from my feed door and wait until my hay is served before I start ripping and chomping nibbling daintily upon it.

My manners are much better now, but sometimes I forget and fall back into my former bad ways. When that happens my waitress swiftly pulls my hay back through the feed door and gives me a look. Then I remember my manners and I step away from the feed door until my hay is properly placed in my trough.

Equine dining etiquette isn't just about obeying rules. It is a matter of being kind and considerate of others. After all, I wouldn't want to hurt my waitress by accidentally tearing into her hand with my hungry horsey teeth. Besides, I'm a vegetarian.

Dining with grace & style,